


To Cover a Multitude of Sins

by Runeless



Category: A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Genre: Canon, Canon-Compliant, Epilogue, Forgiveness, Freedom, Redemption, after canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 07:05:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17259758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runeless/pseuds/Runeless
Summary: He had intended to save Scrooge.  He had not intended to save himself.But he has been wrong before, in life.(James 5:20- Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins...)





	To Cover a Multitude of Sins

Scrooge's change is sudden, as Marley had, somehow, known it would be. Scrooge was not like Marley himself- Scrooge had gold inside him, gold of human love and human compassion and human kindness, something of real value, not the meaningless minerals they had hoarded so in life. Hidden deep under his years of pain and bitterness, there was good in Scrooge that Marley had never had. It's what had kept him friends with Scrooge, all these long years; the flashes of hidden concern Scrooge would show, before catching himself, before reverting to hardness and bitterness.

Marley had never had that, but he had always admired it, and now... now that would have to do. It was time to return to the endless walk, to stalk amongst mankind, separate and alone, as he had chosen to be in life and so was doomed to be in death. 

He sighed as he turned away, to continue the endless walk, because for all Scrooge's newfound freedom, Marley himself was still in chains; but he had known that at the start, and it was with a lighter heart that he took his first few steps.

-

It takes six months before he notices that his burden feels... lighter. At first, he had confused it for his lighter heart, for his joy that he had saved Scrooge- a task he will check up on at Christmas, the one time he will be allowed some freedom in what he does- but soon, even happiness does not explain the feeling in his shoulders and legs. It's hard to measure things in his state, it is difficult, but through eyeballs trained to see the slightest changes in rows of numbers, he thinks his chains are... less.

And in the following few months, he knows it, feels how much lighter his burden is becoming. He does not know why, but the idea that someday, perhaps, he will be free... it is enough to bring tears to his spectral eyes, tears he did not know he could cry. 

He prays, that night, to the lord of spirits, to whatever force of justice it is that decreed his punishment and now allows his release, the wordless prayer of the wide-eyed prisoner, believing in freedom.

-

Come next Christmas Eve, he goes by Scrooge's house, and pauses as he enters it. He sees changes in the building, wear and tear it has never known in the years that either he or Scrooge ghosted through it; but the wear and tear makes it more alive, the wear and tear of laugh lines and smile lines, the loving stains of life, and it is with some shock he realizes that the building, inhabited for years, has finally and at last become a home. It is a home to many, now. Scrooge himself, of course, who still keeps the old bedroom, but who does more than eat mean meals and sit near meager fires now, who is alive the way he has not been since his sister died. That same sister's son, along with his wife and, in her belly, their child to be, live here too, souls who Scrooge treats as his heirs for the first time in forever, finally fulfilling the promise he should have sworn to her all those years ago. A housemaid, too, who in another timeline stole his bedsheets from round his corpse; who in this timeline lives here now with her sister and her family, who has been invited in because Scrooge's house has many rooms. 

Others, too, more temporary, but for whom it is home nonetheless: guests, who come and go, always the city's poorest that Scrooge can find, who stay until he can find another place for them. The house is especially full now, in winter and on Christmas, when all the poorest Scrooge can support live here; a dozen souls that would be lost in the cold but that Scrooge opened his doors, who now will live to see spring.

Life dominates this house in which Marley died, and he has a moment to be grateful for it; even this late at night, there is the gentle puff of breaths, of the living quiet and peaceful. Scrooge cannot save everyone; for all his wealth, he is just one man, but he can save a dozen at a time, and a fistful of human lives is worth all the world. It is more good than Marely did in all his life, and he puts ghostly hand to wooden pillar to support himself, just for a moment, as he realizes the depth of the change in Scrooge. His plan to save his friend had worked. It had worked beyond all hope of expectation.

After a moment, he manages to walk inside. He proceeds up the stairs, following his old path, listening as his chains jingle- but not as much as they had. His steps are a bit easier, his back a little more straight, these days. 

He pauses at the bedroom door, thinking he will find his friend asleep, but he is awake... and he hears something at the door that brings him pause, brings him up short.

“ Oh Lord, free Marley from his chains first. Before my good deeds chip away at mine, let them break his. He saved me, Lord, so let me save him.”

He doesn't hear anything else, is too surprised. He had thought it would be a good deed, to do something for his only friend, and then to... to return to his torment, he supposed. Scrooge is the reason his chains are shrinking?

Laughter distracts him, and he turns to find the Ghost of Christmas Present, sitting where he had that long year ago, decked in glory. Kindness, forbearance, human good rolls off of him in waves almost physical. Some part of Marley wonders if Jesus himself was merely a particularly powerful manifestation of this spirit, this lord good and mighty, or if perhaps some part of the spirit was part of Jesus.

“ Marley,” the Ghost says, “ you are surprised, no?”

Marley can only nod. He is too surprised to trust his phantom tongue. 

“ Do you think that mercy is for the living only?” says the Ghost, laughing. “ Your chain exists because of your love of your money; so why does it surprise you, that your chains shrink as your money does?”

Marley cocks a head, and the Ghost laughs again- not at him, Marley realizes, but with him, invites him to share in a joke that has taken a lifetime to tell, to partake in the bounty of his amusement.

“ He prays for you,” the Ghost explains. “ He prays, and he spends your money, in the hopes that he might yet buy your freedom. He has taken to heart this saying: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Scrooge has, to the man's eternal credit, chosen to place your treasure in the hands of those who need it, the poor and the needy. He is inheritor of your money, and he hopes, in gratitude, in friendship, to save you, as you saved him, by taking that money and turning it into lockpicks, hammers, chisels for your chains. He hopes to transmute your earthly gold into heavenly reward- not his own, but yours, to break the chains you bear.”

Marley's tongue finds itself in his mouth. “ I did not save him to save myself,” he is able to say. Present gives him a smile, small and powerful on his big face.

“ I know,” he says. “ Why do you think it is working? To be so selfless- with no expectation of reward- to do so just because you love your friend, and would not see him suffer. It is not enough to justify your deeds, or lack thereof, but it is enough, perhaps, to open the door to possibility... to allow another to make up for your misdeeds, to do as Scrooge is doing, to spend and pray on your behalf and have it count, in the end.”

“ Will he have time to destroy his own chain?” Marley asks, helpless- he hates his chains so much, but he will not risk Scrooge's chains on this, he did this for him, and he will not allow Scrooge to waste his second chance saving Marley. Christmas Present's laughter washes over him again, warm and approving.

“ He will have time,” the Ghost assures him. “ Have no fear, kind and brave soul. He has more than years enough, and though he does not know it, as he spends to shrink your chain, he shrinks his own. What else can it be called, but charity, good works, to work to set a ghost free? He hammers away at the links that make up your greedy lock, but you two were always in business together; your chains come from the same source, are a hydra with many heads but only one body, and he cuts not at the necks but at the heart of the beast. The locks he destroy are his own locks, the hammer that sets you free shatters his past as well. In working to save you, he will save himself. Fear not, Marley.”

For a moment, Marley sees what is really there- not a large man heavy on the milk of human kindness, but something more, something impossibly alien, like a piece of the night sky come down, a chunk of holy and silent night, clothed in the images that humans used to make things more palatable. Something good, in an elemental kind of way, down to its bones, something angelic...

But he blinks, and the moment is gone. He waits there a moment, with the quiet and smiliing lord of the present, hearing Scrooge finish his prayer and begin to ready himself to sleep. 

“ Can I see him? Tell him that it's working?” Marley asks, and the Ghost who is not a Ghost but a Spirit- a small, but terribly important distinction- nods to him.

“ It would be cruel not to. Go to him.”

And so, for the second time, Marley goes to see his friend, to bring him news- to tell him that with each breath taken by Scrooge's guests, his chains lighten.

( Someday, he will stand next to Scrooge, both unburdened by chains, before the gates of Heaven, and they will enter into this latest venture together.)

**Author's Note:**

> Written in honor of Christmas and the Alistair Sim adaptation, my personal favorite. I'm not a Christian, but felt that the imagery fit the original story the best, and there is something to admire in the more redemptive parts of the religion. Marley, I always felt, deserved better, and so I have given it to him.


End file.
